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When you are considering an iguana as a pet, you must keep these facts in mind when you are creating its habitat.  Reptiles need an external heat source and sunlight (or artificial “sunlight”) for 10–12 hours per day.  Typically the heat source and light be provided to the iguana through a “heat rock” of a proper size and a Vitalite.

The critical components to keeping an iguana healthy are good nutrition and a fastidiously clean and dry cage.   Iguanas are not very social animals, so having a second iguana in the cage will likely result in aggression and fighting with resulting in injury.

The iguana is almost completely herbivorous, so its diet in captivity should reflect that. There are several good quality commercially available complete iguana diets to choose from.  The “home-made” diets of the past have little benefit and less quality for the iguana.  The home-made diets are typically to high in animal proteins and severely deficient in calcium.

The growing iguana should have fresh food offered to it daily.  The mature iguana should have food offered 3–4 times per week.  There should always be fresh, clean water available.  You should select a diet that is both nutritionally complete for the iguana and easy for you to prepare.

When designing the cage for the iguana, you must keep in mind that a hiding place for the iguana to retreat to should be provided.

Reptiles are very susceptible to poisoning from pine oil cleaners like Pinesol and Lysol, so these cleaners should be avoided.  The bottom of the cage can be covered with clean newspaper, butcher paper or indoor/outdoor carpeting.

The cage should be setup so that it can be easily cleaned.  Human nature dictates that the more time it takes to clean the cage and the more complicated the task, the less often it will be done.  Make the cage functional first, and not beautiful.

Iguanas are excellent swimmers.  The bath tub is an excellent place for the iguana to get some exercise and recreation while you are cleaning its cage.  The tub should be filled with water that is warm, comfortable for a human bather.  The tub’s shallowest end should be filled no deeper than to allow

for the submersion of  no more than 2/3’s of the iguana’s body.

A skilled herpetologist or veterinarian can provide you with specific recommendations for your iguana.

Some of the problems that obesity can cause or contribute to include:

• back problems
• joint problems
• cardio-vascular problems
• increased liver problems
• increased kidney problems
• pancreatic problems
• skin problems
• respiratory distress
• hortens life expectancy
• increased susceptibility to heat stress
• decreased fertility in breeding animals
• xercise intolerance (decreased play ability)
• increased maintenance costs (both in grocery & vet    bills, by as much as $400.00 per year)
• increased susceptibility to infections/decreased immune responses

These are just a few of the problems that being as little as 10% over-weight can cause in the long-term health of our pets.

How much are you really feeding your pet?  If you are following the recommendations on the pet food package, you are probably over-feeding.  When the package states for “active” dogs – what it really means is for dogs that run/ exercise 2–3 miles per day, 7 days a week; “less active” dogs – means 0.5 to 1 mile per day of exercise.  Most of our pets exercise 2–3 miles per week.

Another major contributing factor to obesity is the habit of “free feeding” (i.e. putting the food down all day and letting our pet “self-regulate” the amount it eats).  This does not work for most Americans, nor does it work for most of our pets.  The food should be measured into a bowl and then given to the pet for a set amount of time – typically 10–30 minutes.  Any “left over” food should be removed from the animal’s presence.

Another factor is the “concentration” of the food, especially with the “dry” foods.

Consider the following table of the amount of water in food:

% Water in:   Meat      Canned Food   Semi-Moist    Dry

75–80%    73–78%        12–20%        8–12%

What does this mean?  By looking at the amount of water in meat and canned food, we see that they are very close to the same concentration.  For mathematical ease, we are going to call them the same at 75%.  We shall also pick a 10% concentration for dry food, and a 15% concentration for the semi-moist foods, for the same reason.

If a dog would normally eat 16 ounces of meat in a day, this means that the dog actually ate:

Ounces of water         Ounces of “calories”

16 oz meat         12 oz water             4 oz “calories”

16 oz dry food     1.6 oz water         14.4 oz “calories”

16 oz. semi-moist  2.4 oz water          13.6 oz “calories”

So, by simply feeding the convenient dry food, we have increased the caloric intake of our pet by 3.6 times (i.e.

14.4 oz / 4 oz = 3.6) or with the semi-moist by 3.4 times (i.e. 13.6 oz / 4 oz = 3.4), which means that we really should DECREASE the amount of dry or semi-moist foods we put in the bowl.  But we all say, “that does not look like enough food.” and we do not decrease the food levels.  Most of the time we “fill the food bowl”, to the detriment of our pets.

inadequate understanding about the function of the various dog restraint and control devices – leashes, harnesses, web or leather collars, chain choke collars, chain pinch/prong

collars, nylon choke collars, “gentle lead muzzle harnesses”, leather or nylon muzzles, electronic field collars.  Each of these devices has strong points as well as

weak points.  Some of these devices can be left on the animal with minimal supervision, and some of these devices require constant supervision while the dog is wearing it.

Most of these restraint devices should be removed from

the dog, when the pet is in a “free-roam” situation.  The exception to this guideline would be the use of a properly fitted web or leather collar or a field “training” collar.

The dog typically will get out of a harness or gentle lead device, often resulting in the loss of the device.  If your dog requires the use of a muzzle, then you should probably reconsider bringing this animal into a free-roam dog park situation.  A muzzle restraint device severely inhibits a

dog’s ability to pant and thus to cool himself off.  So over-heating is a real possibility. Muzzles are also fairly easy for an aggressive dog to remove, with the real possibility of a dog-fight or person getting bitten.

The slip-type collars (choke chain, prong chain, nylon) should NEVER be left on a dog in a free-roam situation.  These collars are designed to tighten down on the dog’s neck to provide a corrective stimulus.  Unfortunately, these collars can also be snagged by undergrowth, fences, underwater obstructions, other dog’s teeth, with a strangulation resulting.

But, no matter what type of restraint device is used, supervision by the owner is a must, especially when the dog is allowed to free-roam.